Game of Thrones season 7 finale spoilers below!!!
Game of Thrones wrapped up its seventh season with a veritable embarrassment of fan-pleasing riches. There was dragon action, characters meeting for the first time, backstabbers getting back-stabbed and a sex scene that we all have very complex and conflicting feelings about.
And we’re not alone!
As Jon and Dany — Westeros’s hottest new incest couple — made it hookup official, Tyrion stood outside the door with a look on his face that really encapsulated our feelings at the time:
And while most assume that he was worried about this particular union because of what it might do to their zombie-resistance team, or how it might affect the North’s ability to take Jon seriously as a king, some Game of Thrones over-thinkers have another idea.
Tyrion may look worried in that scene… because he recently betrayed Daenerys.
Let’s start with the Dragonpit sequence. Jon Snow and his crew manage to convince Cersei that they need to take a break from fighting with each other and instead focus their energy and resources on the Army of the Dead. She agrees with one condition: Jon Snow has to stand down and not take sides in the war between House Lannister and House Targaryen.
It’s a lot to ask, but all Jon has to do is lie. He doesn’t, and that’s when Cersei walks away from the whole deal, much to everyone’s chagrin. (Except for Dany whose panties probably dropped through the floor.) So Tyrion has to resort to plan b; convincing Cersei himself, even though she wants to kill him more than anyone has ever wanted to kill anyone.
Here’s what’s weird though: Even though there’s an excellent scene between Tyrion and Cersei where they seem to let their respective guards down and talk like people, we never see the scene of Tyrion actually convincing her to join the fight. The camera cuts away, and the next thing we see is Cersei coming back to the dragonpit ready for action.
We don’t know what Tyrion said to turn her around. We don’t know what he promised. We don’t know what he offered. So what if he offered Cersei something she couldn’t refuse? Daenerys. Or Jon. Or both of them. It may seem crazy, but there’s some evidence.
First off, Tyrion had just mouthed-off to Jon about the value of lying occasionally. Maybe he knew that the only way out of this mess was to lie to his friends. (Of course, it could also mean he’s lying to Cersei in some way.)
Also, Tyrion seemed sympathetic to Cersei and explained that he doesn’t want to destroy the Lannister family. He also seemed genuinely moved and worried when he figured out that Cersei is pregnant. Maybe he cares about his family a lot more than he’s letting on, and is realizing that he has to skew the upcoming battle in their favor to save his name.
I need to see a pregnancy test because she gon keep bringin up this baby wit no proof. #GameOfThrones
— T-Pain (@TPAIN) August 28, 2017
Finally, Daenerys getting betrayed was foretold in a book prophecy:
The voices were growing louder, she realized, and it seemed her heart was slowing, and even her breath … three treasons will you know … once for blood and once for gold and once for love.
The first treason was most likely Mirri Maz Duur — who promised to save Khal Drogo but made him more of a soulless blowup doll. That means that (if the show is even following the book’s three treasons prophecy at all) Daenerys has two more incoming. Tyrion’s betrayal could be the “love” one — referring to either Jon and Dany’s relationship or Tyrions love for Dany.
Of course there’s evidence against Tyrion’s betrayal as well. Like the fact that Cersei didn’t plan on ever marching north with her army; something that was revealed to us towards the end of the episode. There’s also the simple fact that, regardless of children and family, Tyrion has NO reason to be loyal to ANY Lannisters, least of all his sister. It would be a pretty major rewrite of his character.
Either way, shaky alliances, backstabbing, and lies are what Game of Thrones is made of. No one should have ever expected that we would enter the great war and everyone would be friends. Power-seeking and murderous characters are as selfish as ever when the end times come, and it’s going to make for some fantastic final episodes.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to cryogenically freeze myself until the show comes back.